Plants Vs Zombies: Battle For Neighborville
IT’S FLOWER POWER VERSUS THE UNDEAD SPREAD IN THE THIRD PVZ SHOOTER REBECCA STOW
PUBLISHER ELECTRONIC ARTS / DEVELOPER POPCAP GAMES / RELEASE DATE OUT NOW / COST £34.99/$39.99
single-player missions and intense
boss fights. You might also be tasked
with bounty hunting, finding hidden
gnomes, as well as various other jobs.
For your efforts, you’ll be rewarded
with a specific currency unique to
each region that you can use to buy
item maps and customisation options.A new leaf
However, Battle For Neighborville is a
multiplayer game at heart, and playing
against other people is the highlight
of the experience. There are new and
returning multiplayer modes, and they
all support online and local co-op play.
In a similar setup to Soil Survivors (a
limited-time mode featured in Garden
Warfare), the brand-new Battle Arena
pits two teams of four fighters against
each other in a colourful map called
‘The Funderdome’. You must carefully
select your team, ideally with a
member of each class (now simplified
to Attack, Defence and Support), and
then take to the battlefield. To win the
entire match you’ll need to emerge
triumphant in at least four of sevenLike a tiny acorn
growing into a giant
oak tree, it’s amazing
how big the Plants
Vs Zombies franchise
has become. Since
the original mobile game released
to rave reviews in 2009, we’ve seen
sequels, a card-based spin-off and
now the third entry in the franchise’s
third-person shooter arm, Plants Vs
Zombies: Battle For Neighborville.
Fire up this sequel to Garden
Warfare 2 and you’ll find yourself in
‘Neighborville’, a safe zone separated
into three distinct areas. There’s Dave
Manor, a plant-friendly base owned by
a taco-loving time traveller; Zomboss
HQ, the zombie base run by brain-
loving Dr Zomboss; and Giddy Park, a
large theme park separating the two
warring factions that allows for casual
combat and training.
Inside your base you can upgrade
your character, exchange coins for
experience and enter the free-roam
PvE worlds. These open areas are
filled with colourful landmarks, small
battles. It’s an exciting new play style,
not least because when a strategically
important member of your team is
vanquished their death can all but end
your hope of victory.
Perhaps the most enjoyable mode
in Battle For Neighborville is the aptly
named Turf Takeover. Trapped in an
arena with up to 23 other players,
your team’s objective is to either
defend or take a stronghold, or to
escort or destroy a moving payload.
With numerous zombies and plants all
fighting in one well-designed space,
Turf Takeover offers high-intensity
action to rival any online shooter. It’s
faced-paced, hectic and consistently
laugh-out-loud funny, thanks to the
franchise’s unique brand of visual
humour, only elevated by the addition
of six goofy new characters.
Of course, there’s an impressive
number of returning characters as well
(including favourites like Peashooter
and Captain Deadbeard), but the
new additions are excellent. On the
plant side we now have Night Cap,
a ninja mushroom with some sweetshort
cutWHAT IS IT?
The third shooter
from the PVZ
franchise, sequel to
Garden Warfare 2.
WHAT’S IT LIKE?
Call Of Duty but with
more greenery,
zombies and
slapstick humour.
WHO’S IT FOR?
Younger or more
casual shooter fans
who are looking for a
good laugh.070 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE